Tea and Coffee and Things
by ChaseThisLightWithMe
Summary: One-shot. AH. AU. Magnus gets himself into a bit of trouble and, as punishment, must perform thirty hours of community service at a nursing home. Turns out there is more than just little old ladies that can make him smile.


**I'm back for more!  
Enjoy this one, it's a fluffy AU.  
Hugs and squishes to the wonderful advice-giver, alicelightwoodbane. Much love.**

* * *

Magnus walked up to the plainly decorated building before him, eyeing the nice little flower beds that were neatly kept and hugged close to the red bricks of the place. The array of colours brightened the foot of the building like well applied nail polish. Magnus could appreciate that. The rest of it seemed rather dull. The red bricks crept up to grey roof tiles, not really complimenting it but rather indicating that the decision of the combination was not well thought out. Shutters were pulled up over large windows that nearly overtook the entire wall and white curtains could be seen through the clear glass. There was a set of four steps that took you directly up to the tiny porch and the front door, but to his left, Magnus saw the installed ramp that swung across the side of the building and bent back to meet at the porch as well. At the front door there was a wicker mat. It didn't seem to meet too many feet because the message of 'Welcome' was as clear as ever - no wear on the wicker.

He entered without knocking. He didn't think there was anyone that would actually care if he came in or not. Wide halls greeted him and encouraged him further to the little set up of an office. Behind the desk was a woman, probably in her early forties.

A phone was tucked between her cheek and shoulder while she agreed to whoever was on the other side and simultaneously rifled through some papers with her left hand and made notes on a yellow sticky note with her right.

Magnus waited patiently, especially since she pulled her eyes up forward when he approached and smiled to him. He didn't like office administrators that sat there plodding along with their work, re-shuffling papers that didn't need to be shuffled and basically doing everything to pretend they didn't see you. He couldn't understand the purpose. Why not just deal with the person, help them quickly and get back to wasting time shuffling papers? That way no one was dealing with people they didn't want to deal with longer than they had to.

So, Magnus waited, looking at the glass ornamental rose that lay along the desk, the triangular sign that told him once again that this was the main office desk and the tag on the woman's shirt said 'Linda'.

Soon after, Linda put down the pen and retracted her hand from the mass of papers. She grasped at the phone, saying a brusk goodbye and put the phone down with a clatter of plastic. "Sorry about that," she smiled once again, "can't ever get off the phone when I'm talking to those people, all they want to do is talk. What can I do for you?"

Magnus offered a light smile, as if to say he knew exactly what she was talking about. Which, he guessed he sort of did. He preferred quick conversations over ones that took three hours. It was better to have a minute conversation that organised a place to meet which was followed by coffee and a three hour chat than have a three hour chat on the phone. "I called about a week ago to organise a regular weekly placement?"

In a way, he was here because he had to be. One night he had been partying with friends and he got too drunk and thought it would be a great idea to strip off some of his clothes and parade down the street, attempting to wave down cars, but then, when someone offered him fifty dollars for the night he got defensive (and violent) saying that he was worth more than that when he had more clothes _on_. Evidently, he was picked up by the police, namely because the guy's car had suffered. That resulted in an exchange of a few not so nice words. Magnus guessed it was because he probably pissed off the officer that he got arrested and wasn't let off with slap on the wrist. After more than a little drama he found himself with thirty hours of community service. At least there wasn't a fine to pay in the end. Magnus could do this. Community service wasn't much. And besides, they let him choose where he served his time.

The best place he could think of was the elderly nursing home. And this place was ideal, it wasn't huge, only about twenty five residents, because it used to be a house but had been renovated and extended out the back and sides into the lot behind it so that it could hold the facilities for the nursing home.

Old people were cute most of the time. It was nearby for him. It was much better than picking up rubbish on the side of the freeway. All he planned on doing was reading the newspaper to some old guy, or give cute fashion advice to the ladies. He would accept what he was given and take it all in stride. There wasn't much he could do anyway. Complaining would never work. He was stupid enough to get himself that drunk in the first place. Rather, he was stupid enough to get himself caught then call the officer a 'self-righteous pig' among other things.

Magnus had reasoned with himself about a week ago when he ended up calling the home and arranging for a time to begin. He liked to pride himself in being as reasonable as possible when sober. There wasn't much point being bitter about it all.

Linda seemed to think about what Magnus had said for a moment. She launched backwards to pick up a thin file sitting by itself behind her. "Ah, Magnus? Is that how you pronounce it? Yes, I forgot about your community service form, but Jenny, the other admin lady - the one who took your call - left the paperwork here. You just need to sign this and obviously every time that you come in so we can report that you are serving your hours. You can do that in this book." She patted a black, leather bound book that had a black ribbon poking out from between the closed pages like a tongue. "All the visitors fill that out. However, you're going to also tell someone that you've arrived so they can give you this." Linda handed Magnus a card that was encased in a clear plastic rectangle that said 'Visitor'. "We'd rather you didn't take that off, because our staff needs to know who you are and what you're doing. And when you are leaving, you'll need to have the book filled out too."

Magnus guessed that Linda liked to talk a fair bit. Even though Magnus assumed these precautions would have to be met, she seemed to be content with going on and on for a little while longer. The whole time he just nodded politely, sparing a glance at the objects she was indicating.

"You can go down that hallway and there will be a few of our residents participating in a knitting group. Get yourself used to the environment and the residents here." She smiled sweetly.

"Well, maybe they can all teach me how to knit." Magnus winked at Linda, taking the card and clipping it to the lip of jeans pocket, before striding down the hallway.

All the walls were a pale shade of a once bright colour. The halls were a barely-there blue. It almost mixed with the white ceiling, never to be acknowledged as a colour again. A room broke off from the hallway as it continued further into the building. It was open and was more of guest sitting room that one might have in their own home. A rather pointless room in a house, but cozy for its purposes in the nursing home. Light rushed in through six long, thin, floor to ceiling windows. There was no door to this room, the entire fourth wall entrance was gutted out and became another extension from the hall as a public meeting area. It created a really inviting atmosphere.

Seated in plush, flower-pattern couches were a collection of old women, all of whom were clutching onto white knitting needles and had yarn trailing about in all different directions. The clicking of the needles was drowned out by the constant chatter between them. There was nine of them. One lady was perched in a recliner chair that had not been released backwards, the rest were sitting with at least another in the arrangement of couches. Two sets of two women occupied the smaller sofas that were at ninety degree angles to the long matching one, where four women were knitting.

Magnus grinned to himself and strode into the room. "All right ladies, I'm Magnus, nice to see you all looking so beautiful today. Who wants to teach me how to knit?" He gave them a wink like he had to Linda.

They all looked up and giggled at his entrance, then seemed to get quite excited by a fresh face. The four women in the big sofa immediately parted like the red sea, giving Magnus space to sit between them, two ladies on either side.

He took the spot graciously and they scooted closer to him, eliminating what free space that was left. Someone had pressed a pair of needles into his hands and placed a ball of yarn on his lap.

"What brings you here, Magnus?" Someone to his left asked him, all their eyes were trained on his movements.

He turned towards them, giving his best winning smile. He was starting to like all this attention. "I'm looking to whisk you all away for a wonderful day in my company."

"Been naughty have we then, Magnus?" asked another. The others seemed to smile, somehow already guessing that because Magnus was not an original worker there was another reason for his presence.

He acted hurt and shocked, taking a hand to his heart. "Now, now, ladies. That's not the kind of information you give out on first dates." The hand that found its way high up on his thigh was an indication that he was not the only one being naughty, as they liked to put it. He pushed down a laugh and said, "I don't know what I'm doing here." He lifted up his knitting utensils to show that he had not progressed anywhere.

It was snatched away from him and before he knew it, they were returned to his hands with a row already down for him. "You have to start it off first, we'll do that for you."

That was how it worked, all the old ladies were fretting over Magnus as he stumbled through the techniques of knitting, occasionally asking him questions, but mainly jokingly scolding him for getting a hole in the piece. When that happened, it was stolen from him again, fixed and then returned soon after.

"Maddie is making a sweater for her husband, who is probably playing poker in living room with the other old codgers. Bertie, here, is making these adorable booties for her grandchildren." The woman named Bertie lifted up a small cluster of colourful knitted yarn, they did look really cute. "And Patricia is working through the eleventh beanie this season." Teresa was the one on his right explaining everything to him, she had yet to remove her hand from his leg, but it wasn't as high as Mary, on his left, kept it.

"Uh-huh." Magnus replied, still focusing intently on not dropping a stitch as he threaded and looped the wool through. He had started getting really into it now that he got the hang of it, and since they were more than willing to right his wrongs, Magnus had made a pretty decent looking knitted rectangle. They all knitted in silence for a while, except Teresa and Mary, who kept their hands where they were and observed Magnus instead.

"What really brought you here, Magnus?" A woman named Gina asked. "It's not every day we get a handsome young man visiting us, looking like he's up to no good but charming us all with a smile. You can't do that to little old ladies, it's not fair."

Magnus settled back a bit into the couch and sighed dramatically. "If you must know, I'm here on community service."

"A bit of a partier are we, Magnus?"

"You could say that," Magnus allowed, not really wanting to get into specifics, but what could be the harm? They didn't seem to mind.

"Having fun with the law then?"

He nodded, remembering all the fun that had led up to his confrontation with the officer. "It was a good night."

"Ah, Magnus," one of them tutted, and Magnus expected some sort of lecture, "enjoy it while you can."

He nearly choked on a laugh. They were just incredible. "Excuse me?"

"You know, go to all those parties, drink, get into trouble, dance on tables... trouble is always the best."

"Oh, Gina, just because you danced on many tables in your time."

Magnus raised his eyebrows appreciatively. "What I would give so that I could have been there for all the times you ladies were partying and dancing..." he trailed off, smiling and focusing back to his knitting, also signaling the end of his willingness to continue with the topic. The women got the hint and returned to their knitting as well.

Time went by easier than Magnus thought it would have. He initially thought he would have to force himself into thinking that this community service was bearable in order to get through his thirty hours, but the first day was proving to be better than expected. At least his punishment didn't have to be _punishment_. That cop could suck it. Magnus would try to make the best of anything.

Magnus broke the silence to ask a question about how long it would take them to make a sweater and what else do they do besides knitting, but he was cut off by a sharp, "Shhh!"

"But–"

"Shhh!"

"What's–"

"Shh, Magnus."

"What's going on?" He whispered to Mary.

"It's twelve thirty, they come around and bring us tea and biscuits. This is the best part of the day." She said it as if it explained everything. Magnus was really confused. He didn't understand what was so grand about tea and biscuits, but he noticed a lot of the women pretended to be knitting and were really looking towards the hall. "The young man they get to serve the tea, he works here. You have to see him. Very cute." At that, all the women giggled much like they did when they first saw Magnus.

"Okay..." Magnus trailed off, still a bit confused.

A few more minutes passed before a small wheeled cart turned the corner carrying saucers, tea cups and a steaming tea pot. "Good afternoon ladies. How are we?"

They all chorused, "Good," elongating the vowel sound.

When Magnus finally saw him properly he understood what they were talking about. He was really tall and had to bend himself in order to push the tea things adequately. His black hair fell forward and Magnus wanted to jump up and push it away so he could have a better view of those gorgeous blue eyes. It was peculiar to see a grown man fiddling over the small kitchen utensils, the size difference being the glaringly obvious detail, like a giant fumbling with a porcelain doll.

The man noticed Magnus and immediately straightened up. "Oh, um, sorry. Are you a grandson of one of the residents?"

"No, Alec." Bertie interjected. "Magnus is here for all of us, we've been teaching him how to knit. It's his first day."

"Well, in that case." He turned to the women, seemingly less nervous when talking to them. "I hope you are all being good to him."

They all giggled again and one of the women said "I don't know, it might be him we have to watch. Magnus, here, has been a naughty boy." The man looked alarmed at her words and Magnus did not want to consider what was going through his head.

He shook his head, as if to dispel the last comment and started preparing to hand out the tea and coffee and biscuits. Magnus jumped up. "Do you need a hand?"

Alec looked a little startled at the offer, but smiled shyly and gave Magnus a small nod. He told Magnus which cups took sugar and which didn't, then asked him to fill the cups with the hot water while he passed out the correct cup and saucer to the right resident. Many of the women held his face in their hands or pinched at his cheeks before they accepted his offering of tea, finishing off with a, "Thank you, sweetie" or some other form of endearment on the end.

"Would you like one?" Alec offered Magnus when he was finished handing out all the cups. "I make a mean tea." He didn't look Magnus in the eye, apparently he was more capable of conversation when he was not looking at Magnus.

Magnus smiled at the other man, replacing the lid to the sugar pot. "No, I'm alright. Thank you. I'm more of a coffee person anyway."

"In that case, I make an even better coffee. I make about thirty different combinations of tea and coffee for the residents, and I think it's safe to say I have enough practice."

"I don't want to be a bother." Magnus observed the fluid motions of his companion, marveling in the way his black hair curled at the back, against the collar of his shirt. It poked up through the confines of the sweater he was wearing. By the light blue colour of it, Magnus could only assume it was the same shirt that Linda was wearing that had the red and blue swirl composition of the company's logo. "I might have to take you up on that offer another time."

Alec ducked his head and Magnus could barely make out a quiet, "Sure," in response.

* * *

Alec left briefly to attend to something else, he had mumbled his excuse and walked off down a different route than he came. Magnus returned to his seat between Teresa and Mary. They were happily sipping their tea quietly. In fact, all of them were.

"So that's the best part of your day, ladies? Perving on some poor boy."

"Hah!" Bertie exclaimed, "You make it sound like we were the only ones." She shot Magnus a cheeky grin and Magnus began to protest.

"Magnus, you can't lie to us." Magnus knew that much was true. He was silently hoping he would return again soon. "And, either way, we saw you looking at him."

He was about to say something for the sake of his dignity against the army of old ladies, but something told him he wasn't going to win the battle, also, one of them piped up, effectively stopping his retort. "He's good fun to have around, we just love making him blush. It's so endearing."

Magnus couldn't stop himself from laughing loudly. Were these ladies even real? Sometimes it was easy to forget that old people were his age once. They weren't stupid. They knew exactly what it was like. It just seemed like after a certain age you just suddenly become mature and stop doing reckless things, settle down and things like flirting became distant memories. Which might be the case, partially, but seeing it unfold right in front of him, he could see that it was ridiculous to think that nothing from your younger years remained. Hell, they probably invented half of the things Magnus found himself doing. No doubt they had been around the block more often than he had.

"I hate to break it to you all, but I'm going to say he bats on my team."

"What makes you say that?" One of them said and the rest stared at him. There were a few glances spared around the room accompanied by the type of knowing smiles that could only be perfected by sweet, old ladies. It was like they were trying to psych him out.

"It's a gift," was all Magnus provided. He wanted to keep his confidence up in front of them. But it was obvious that they had known Alec for much longer than he had, they could easily know more about him. Normally, he would be able to make that decision without a second of hesitation. There was something about Alec that just reeled him in.

Alec came back to clear up the tea cups so the women could get back to their knitting. He looked a little flustered and once again, Magnus offered to help him, but he politely declined. It wasn't long before all in the little open room were watching Alec's form leave them.

"Until tomorrow, ladies." Maddie said wistfully to the rest of them.

"I'm just going to..." Magnus got up and followed the way Alec had gone.

"Go on, Magnus." Teresa whispered to his retreating form.

It didn't take long to catch up to him, Alec was taking his time. "Hey."

His dark hair whipped around, surprise registering on his face when he saw Magnus next to him. "Oh, hey. Was there something I forgot? I've done that before. I swear my mind just escapes me sometimes..."

He rambled on some more before Magnus decided to save him from himself. "No, I just wanted to tag along. Those ladies are a piece of work, right?" They took a turn and Magnus found himself in a wide kitchen - everything was spacious here. Alec had begun unloading the cart.

He smirked, "Yeah, they... um, are." Alec was having difficulties keeping eye contact with Magnus, focusing more on the teaspoons in his hand. It was obvious that his mind was far off topic.

"That was insightful." Magnus joked. Alec seemed to be hiding something as well as himself amongst the plates and cups. Trying to change the subject to something decidedly more comfortable, Magnus asked, "How long have you been working here?"

That seemed to do the trick, "Uh, I'd say about three months now. Not really that long. But, I like it."

Magnus was slowly getting annoyed with only getting a view of the side of Alec's face. It was the only thing visible to him as he kept his gaze trained forward. He tried again, "What made you take a job here?" There was extra emphasis in the question, in the hope of receiving more of an answer.

"Well, mainly, I needed a job, and here was where I could get one." Magnus thought that it was going to be a lost cause trying to talk to Alec, but, he continued. "However, I kind of like helping other people." Magnus' eyes widened in surprise, he was also glad to finally see a bit more animation in Alec's expression. "I was used to it. Looking after my sister and my brother all the time. But now, my sister, who's the second eldest in the family, doesn't really need direction and older brother scolding. I'd hate to be the one to admit it, but she's grown up and out of her antics." His smile was simply happy as he talked about his family. It told Magnus that it obviously wasn't something he talked about often, especially in this place. "For the most part," he tacked on. "My little brother is probably the quietest in the family, so there wasn't much intervention from me. I guess I felt like I got back into the rhythm quickly enough. Except, it's not exactly the same type of 'looking after'.

"It's good, nice even. At least you're doing something you like. And from what I see, you're pretty good at what you do. Those ladies really seem to enjoy having you around."

"It's silly," he said soberly. Magnus looked on, watching as he busied himself with his job. By the expression on his face, Magnus could see that there was amusement behind whatever Alec was thinking, "But they are always touching me." He looked too embarrassed to actually say it out loud, as if he knew what was happening but, in his head, it didn't make enough sense and therefore it couldn't really be true. Magnus guessed that Alec probably thought it was ridiculous to bring up.

Magnus laughed. "You're telling me, they're really touchy. I don't think anyone has gone as far as that with their hand on my leg. What base does that cover?"

Alec beamed at the common ground between them, even if it was old ladies who seemed happy to invade personal space. "Least they don't pinch you in... unmentionable areas," he mumbled, still smirking, but somehow still managing to appear uncomfortable. Magnus just stared at Alec.

"_Really?_" Magnus prodded, not believing those ladies could be so crafty, but then again, he wouldn't put it past them.

Alec just nodded, getting shyer as Magnus continued to stare at him wide-eyed in disbelief.

"Someone has to stop them," Magnus snickered, trying to pretend to be outraged for Alec, unable to help himself at the image of the women doing everything they could to make Alec squirm. He could just see them getting away with pinching this employee by blaming it on their age, even if it wasn't true. However, just from this one visit, it was obvious that every single one of them was quite aware of what they were doing, enjoyed doing it and simply continued to do it. Hell, if he were their age, Magnus figured he would probably try the same thing if that sex on a stick came by on a daily basis. It would be great entertainment.

"So," Alec shook his head, clearing his throat and changed the topic rather quickly, "What is your excuse?" When Magnus showed no signs of providing a reply, Alec continued, "There must be a reason why you're here. I can't imagine this being a place where you'd like to hang out." Alec was picking up empty tea cups and transferring them to the sink, the clear sound was an unwelcome disturbance in their conversation.

He continued to do that until the cart was empty and the sink was full. To get it out of the way, Alec pushed it off to the side in a corner; it seemed to be the place that it was kept. Alec still had not attempted to push the topic, instead he rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and filled the secondary sink with water. Magnus wondered why, in a place like this, they did not have a dish washer.

It wasn't like Magnus really wanted to mention it, especially to this random hot guy, it was one thing to tell a bunch of little old ladies, but he didn't want to be judged by Alec. He already figured that community service appointed by court did not sound particularly wonderful, but then again, he couldn't just lie and say it was out of the goodness of his heart. Just because Magnus was not going to complain about having to do it did not mean that it was something he could be found doing in his spare time.

He juggled with the possible things he could say, not coming up with anything remotely plausible and the longer he stayed quiet, the longer he and Alec were not talking. Damn, that kid was good with not talking.

Was it the silent treatment that made him all of a sudden want to just tell Alec everything?

He sighed and said, "Hm, I guess you could say that I made a few people not so happy."

"Community service then?" Alec asked, no hint of change in his voice, just the regular interested disinterest. "How?"

Magnus was thrown off by how indifferent Alec was. Not caring about what he had just said and still washing the dishes in the suds. "Uhh, I guess it's kind of a long story..." Alec just smiled kindly, his eyes crinkling a little at the corners, making Magnus' insides smile too. So he told Alec what had happened, not skimming on any details, because, what was the point in saying it was a long story if it took him only one minute to explain?

During his recount, Alec was politely quiet, nodding in places and smiling in others. Occasionally, he would let out a little breath of a laugh when Magnus' actions slowly became more and more stupid. Once, Magnus had seen him blush.

"Well, you're quite the character, Magnus." Alec had commented once Magnus had finished, looking up from his work with a smile. "Far more daring than I would ever be."

Magnus snorted in reply, "I don't think it's called 'daring' after the amount of alcohol I had in my system."

"More like idiocy." They both said at the same time. Magnus couldn't stop himself from laughing, grinning at Alec like an idiot in the end. Alec beamed back, forgetting himself for a moment.

When he realized what he was doing, Alec immediately turned his head away and stepped over to the other counter-top, now his back was to Magnus.

Magnus had already figured that Alec was shy. It didn't require any amount of detective skills to pick that one up. He thought it was rather sweet to find that in a grown man. Magnus wondered if he would start blushing soon. Only a quick, strained glance that involved Magnus leaning over the counter, but returning back to his normal position before Alec turned around told him that the other man did have a red tint to his cheeks.

He smiled to himself, but quickly chose to stuff down his swelling ego before he got way too in over his head.

Deciding to ignore his duties as a community service member, Magnus perched himself on a stool that was on the other side of the main counter. He propped his chin in his hands and watched Alec move around the kitchen with ease, opening cupboards to return the teacups, wiping away spilt water, completely consumed in his job.

"Aren't you meant to be doing something else?" Alec asked out of the blue. Well, at least it was out of the blue to Magnus, who jumped a little at the sudden noise. "I don't think it counts as community service if you just sit there."

Magnus deflated a little because he figured that Alec probably did not want him around and thus was trying to get rid of him. He knew Alec was right, if anyone else caught him he'd probably get into some kind of trouble, not that it really mattered to Magnus, he would find trouble where no one else could. Alec didn't look like he would report him in.

"I was doing myself a service by sitting here and watching you." Magnus flirted. This time he definitely saw the red rise up in Alec's cheeks, but otherwise the man seemed unperturbed by Magnus' words. Magnus relented a little and said, "Is there anything you need me to do then? I've already spent two hours or so with the pervy, knitting ladies, I think I can graduate to something else."

Alec smiled and checked his watch, "Well, the residents have classes that they should be getting to. They're held in the rooms at the back, they look like large living rooms. You'll know what I mean."

Magnus hoped that he would because, as soon as he finished talking, Alec quickly waved a goodbye and walked down a different path out of the kitchen. Now he was alone and a bit surprised at Alec's quick exit, still trying to work out what he was meant to do besides go down to the back rooms. Checking with the old ladies couldn't hurt.

* * *

"You mean the music and art classes?" Theresa asked, not looking up from her knitting.

"I guess so." Magnus allowed. "Are any of you involved in them?"

"They're separate classes," Mary explained some more, "Once a week some young workers come in to, I don't know, occupy our time? I guess it's not that bad."

"I'm in art!" Theresa exclaimed, her eyes shining with eagerness. "Will you be joining me, Magnus?"

Magnus didn't know what else he could really do. He thought he might as well round up anyone who had to go to a class and take them to it, maybe sit in on one. But he kind of just wanted to find Alec.

Before he knew it, Theresa was clinging to his right arm, looking up at him with expectant eyes and Mary had copied her on his left arm. _Great_, he thought, trying to conceal his smile, _the only action I get is from two ladies who couldn't get their hands higher up on my leg even if they tried._ He accepted it happily enough - what else was he going to do? At least they were happy enough to spend time with him, unlike gorgeous blue eyed men who just leave you for no good reason. _Fine_.

He let the women guide him to where they needed to go because he had no clue himself and would prefer not getting lost. Halfway there, he realized there were a few other knitting ladies following them.

They ended up in a wide room that was very neat and organized. Three square tables were scattered around the middle with four or six chairs tucked in uniformly. No one else was in the room, so Magnus supposed they were early.

"This is where the art classes are held." A lady from behind informed him. "The music classes are in the room over."

Some of the residents broke off from the group to head over to the music class while the rest surged forward, leaving Magnus behind, to get seats next to one another. Immediately, the women started conversing in low voices, hailing other women to their table so that they could join in.

A few men had bustled in, half of them looking pretty grumpy, the others brightened at the sight of some of the ladies already present. All had passed Magnus, not caring for his presence, so he stood there rather awkwardly, hoping that the person running the class would show up, or maybe, he could just slip out...

"Howdy!" A young woman much shorter than Magnus appeared behind him, looking very excited. "I don't believe I've seen you around here before. Are you a son of one of the residents here?" All her sentences ended with a high rise in pitch and Magnus had to make sure he didn't visible cringe while she spoke. "I'm Lucy, by the way!" She stuck her hand out, before he could even answer her question.

"Uh," Magnus had to pull himself out of his own thoughts, "I'm Magnus and no, I'm just here to... help, I suppose." He took her hand and shook it politely.

"Great!" Lucy chirped. She rattled off a few jobs for Magnus to do before she began.

It turned out that it was more of a craft workshop where a little bit of all types of craft were involved. They all had already put together their own bird houses in previous classes. They were just typical square boxes with pointed roofs and a circular hole that acted as a doorway for the bird. At the moment, it looked like everyone had the same bird house in front of them, but upon closer inspection, Magnus realized that some were built better than others. That's how he knew they must have started from scratch.

Lucy was going to get them to paint their bird houses, so Magnus was instructed to lay out plastic coverings over each table that was in use. He grumbled inwardly, but couldn't get too annoyed when the knitting ladies beamed at him as he passed.

Out of habit, he clicked his tongue stud against his teeth while handing out the paint palletes that Lucy had painstakingly put together with the right amounts. He couldn't understand why she didn't set up earlier, now it was just wasting time, and giving Magnus more jobs to do.

She then launched into a set of instructions for painting the bird houses, where Magnus took the opportunity, while everyone was at the very least pretending to pay attention to her, to slink towards the back of the room where the door was. _These people have been alive much longer than you, I'm sure they can paint a goddamn bird house, lady. Leave them to their own devices._

Once out of the room, Magnus made to walk down the hallway back to the kitchen in hope of bumping into Alec along the way, but he heard music coming from the room to his left.

_Must be the music class. _Magnus thought, leaning forward to try and get a little peak into the room without being noticed. After all, he didn't want to be roped into another set of silly jobs. Inside, most of the residents were standing and partnered up, slowly moving side to side and in gentle circles with the music. It was something classical or orchestrated, he wasn't sure. This wasn't his type of music, but they seemed to be enjoying it well enough.

At the other end of the room, Magnus spotted a man dancing with one of the ladies. He was much younger, obviously the 'teacher' of the class, although, Magnus didn't think he was doing much teaching, rather letting the residents do as they pleased, like Magnus had suggested in his head. The guy was conventionally handsome, with ruffled blonde hair and a curious smile.

All the people standing continued to sway or twirl carefully as Magnus observed more of the room. Amongst a cluster of empty chairs sat Bertie from knitting, she was watching everyone else with an unreadable expression and Magnus felt a tug in his chest. Without thinking, he strode into the room right up to Bertie and offered his hand to her, "May I have the pleasure of dancing with you this afternoon?"

She was about to protest, but Magnus did not allow her to. He simply scooped up her hand and brought her to her feet. Her face was priceless, but it soon fell away to laughter when she slipped one hand into his own and the other onto his shoulder.

Her head only managed to reach up to the beginnings of his chest, but that didn't stop her from leaning in close and resting her cheek against him.

"Since when does a pretty woman like yourself sit out on dances like these?"

Her face fell a little, but she still kept her smile. "Since there are an uneven amount of men, because Jeffrey just sits around." She gestured over to the corner and Magnus saw an old man in a plush chair staring stubbornly out the window.

"Ah," Magnus said, spotting Alec in the doorway that he had just abandoned, but Alec wasn't looking at him. He tracked Alec's line of sight to the teacher-guy.

"Alec pops around sometimes and just moons for a bit." Bertie informed. _No wonder the knitting ladies knew if Alec was gay or not. He's pretty obvious._

"Really?" Magnus tried to press without being overheard.

"Oh, yes. He doesn't have to be around for these classes. In fact, I'm pretty sure this cuts into his break time. He stands there, pretending to be supervising or something. Only once he came in and sat down, but he was really quiet and tried to hide his face a lot." She giggled at the end and Magnus did too, just because it was still pretty cute, even if his efforts weren't directed to Magnus.

They came around in a circle and Magnus found himself side by side with the teacher and his partner, he had to consciously make sure he did not slide into bitch-mode.

"Oh, I didn't see you there. What's your name?" The man's voice was full of polite curiosity.

"Magnus." He said stiffly, "and I'm just sitting in on your class, dancing with Bertie here."

"Nice to meet you, I'm-"

Magnus didn't let him finish, he whisked Bertie away from his stupid face and hair so he would not have to learn his name.

"Oh, Magnus. You're being a little ridiculous. He's a very nice young man." Bertie tried to admonish him, but it wasn't very successful.

"I didn't say that he wasn't, but now he's gone and gotten himself in the way. And that's not good for him." Since the exchange between Magnus and the teacher, Magnus noticed that Alec had finally realized his presence. Magnus lifted his hand in a wave and then beckoned for him to come in.

Alec waved back but quickly shook his head, already starting to back away.

"Look, now you've scared him off. You best be more careful around him, Magnus."

Magnus simply nodded and brought his attention back to dancing with Bertie, trying to come up with a way to perhaps change Jeffrey's thinking for future music classes, but that was something for another day. That was a little goal for him to achieve before his hours were up.

He spun her outwards and twirled her back into his arms, against his chest, but that was the best of his knowledge of dancing, except for swaying side to side in a little square. She seemed to be enjoying herself and Magnus wondered how many times before this did she have to sit out until the teacher-guy swapped another lady for her.

* * *

The music had stopped playing and many of the partners remained close. Magnus hadn't even realised that the time had passed.

"I'll be seeing all of you next week." The guy said as he slowly pushed some furniture back into place, but kept smiling at everyone, evening chancing one at Magnus, who did not return it.

"Well, thank you, Bertie. It has been a pleasure, but I think I'm done for the day. I shall be back soon. After all, I have a minimum of three hours a week to fill." He winked at her and let go of her small hands.

"The pleasure is all mine, Magnus. Trust me." And Magnus distinctly felt her hand curve around his waist, to his back and go _much_ lower than should be appropriate.

He was murmuring something about handsy old ladies as he walked out in to the hallway when he remembered that he needed to have someone sign him off before he left so that his hours of service were counted. He turned back, briefly thinking that he'd have to ask the music guy to do it for him, but a better idea came to mind. He could find Alec.

On his quest to find Alec, he had passed one or two others employees, but he just pretended that he was on his way to do something else of importance. He had circled the place at least three times, stumbling into unfamiliar rooms and curling his way back into the kitchen in the hope of spotting him. It was likely, of course, that Alec was finished and had already gone home. Magnus still wanted to be sure of that before he informed someone else of his departure.

Magnus did find him clearing up a few things in the room that had just been used for the Art class. He happily noted that the music guy was nowhere to be seen in the other room. _Good,_ he thought. He knocked gently against the opened door to announce his presence. Alec looked up from a table he was wiping down and smiled.

"Hi."

"Hey," he looked awkwardly around the room and Alec just watched Magnus the whole time. "So I think I'll be leaving for today, I need someone who works here to sort of sign me off?" It ended as a question that Magnus did not intend to ask.

Alec looked at him curiously for a moment and Magnus didn't know what to do under that gaze.

"Why didn't you just ask Jace?"

"Who?"

"Jace. The music instructor."

"Oh!" Magnus walked further into the room and leaned against a table that must have already been cleaned by Alec. "I went with Bertie after the class. She wanted to show me the rest of her knitting."

Alec looked confused. "Bertie was with me soon after the class."

He had been caught out. But not completely caught out. Magnus was not going to tell him that he spent extra time wandering around looking for Alec especially.

There was silence in which they both just stared at each other. Magnus could hear a clock ticking. Alec's cheeks were pink.

"Why didn't you come in when I told you to?" Magnus was fiddling with his stud, not really noticing that he was nervous of Alec's answer, but the action itself gave him away.

"Ah well," now his cheeks were really turning red. "I didn't want to be in the way, or interrupt, and my dancing skills are quite terrible." There was a shy smile hidden behind his lowered head.

"You could have stayed and watched mine. I hear that they are something to be marveled at." Alec outright laughed and Magnus couldn't hide his own laughter either. "I'm joking, I definitely do not believe I am the best, at least dancing to that music, but it would have been nice to have you there, you know."

Alec's smile faltered slightly. "Is it because of him?" Magnus asked, not really wanting to breech this territory.

"That obvious, is it?" Now it was Alec's turn to be a little nervous.

"I don't know. These things just come to me. Maybe to the untrained eye. Just look at me." He gestured to himself, mildly hoping that Alec would suddenly be amazed by him and wish to make off to Magnus' apartment. "I am very good at picking that stuff up." A little bit of Alec's smile returned and Magnus counted that as a win.

"There is nothing in it anyway." Alec picked at the cloth that he was using. "I'm just being rather stupid." He balled it up, but not in anger at the supposed loss, more like frustration at himself.

"He doesn't know?" Magnus guessed.

"Nor is he…"

"Ah." Magnus did not need Alec to elaborate. "I guess that does make you stupid." Alec looked offended, his blue eyes shining in disbelief. "But you are entitled to a little stupidity. Don't beat yourself up about it."

That was something Alec did not anticipate hearing from Magnus. His face softened. Magnus tried to give him a reassuring look and possibly convey a little understanding, but he was distracted by Alec entirely. All of a sudden, Magnus wanted to lean across the relatively large space between them. Just to be closer to Alec. Maybe close enough to touch him. He was all smiles and blushes and Magnus really liked that. It was cute.

Unconsciously, he stepped forward.

Alec seemed to remember Magnus' need to be signed off for the day. "We better get that done. Don't want to keep you here longer than you need." Alec forced a laugh while Magnus silently cursed everything that had to do with that protocol.

He followed Alec to the reception area that was now free of anyone manning the desk. Alec opened the black book that Magnus recalled from earlier that day and underneath a string of scrawled names and details, Alec filled out the line horizontally. Black hair fell into his eyes as he wrote, and for the second time that day, Magnus wanted to push it back. Alec distracted him for a moment, asking him to sign his name at the end.

When he had finished, Alec replaced the pen, closed the book and then moved the hair out of his eyes before Magnus lost the strength to hold himself back.

"I suppose I'll see you again, Magnus."

"You definitely can't get rid of me that easily." Magnus teased. "But thanks for being nice to me on my first day. I guess it isn't always promising when you have someone coming in doing community service after being arrested."

Alec laughed a little. "No, I guess not," he agreed. "But you're certainly the best."

"See you around then, Alec."

He waved and turned back down towards the hall. "Bye."

Could he ask him out? Maybe it was too early? Perhaps he could wait for the next time he came to complete some hours? Was that too early as well? Bertie's words came in to his head. He should be more careful. He should just not do anything about it. Alec was simply a nice enough person and Magnus could just perv on him every time he was at the nursing home. The old ladies did that.

Magnus was walking down the steps, moving to his car, and still debating if he should ask Alec out on a date. He was already leaning towards just letting it go, giving up on asking Alec ever, when he heard his name being called out.

Alec was standing on the small porch when Magnus turned around. Immediately, Magnus realised that he still had the visitor tag attached to his jeans. He supposed he was meant to give that back after each visit.

"Do you want to go out for coffee some day?" A small furrow formed at his brow, like he did not believe the words actually managed to come out of his mouth. "Uh," he regained himself. "Or we could stay in and I'll make you a coffee. I owe you one, remember?"

Magnus grinned. "Both sound fantastic."

Alec looked a little flustered at his response, but nodded nonetheless.

"Call me."

Alec shuffled on his feet. "H–how?"

"I think you guys have my number on file." Alec brightened and turned to go inside. Magnus did the same but in the direction of his car.

His grin widened.

* * *

**Please review! And have a Happy Christmas.  
x**


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